I received this book from the publishers via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Also listened to the book on audiobook, narrated by the author.

I think I just have to call it and say I just don't get on with Jonathan Safran Foer's writing. This is ymy third attempt and again, I just found myself not connecting with all. And this was about a topic I feel strongly about.

I appreciate the sentiment in this book, and what JSF was trying to get across to the reader but I'm not sure if it's because I'm already a vegetarian and someone who tries to limit the amount of dairy/eggs in my diet already but everything that was talked about in this book felt very surface level to me, and I'm already aware of the importance of changing diets for the future of our world as we know it.

The first 63 pages of this book is a compilation of random facts the author decided to talk about before eventually getting to the issue of climate change and eating less meat and dairy. This didn't really work for me and I felt myself switching off from it - it felt like in a weird way JSF was trying to trick the reader into reading about climate change and veganism but the book is literally titled 'Saving the World Begins at Breakfast'.
I also hated the section near the end where he had a whole conversation with his own soul. I appreciated the moments he added about his granny, and what it meant for him thinking about where she came from, and where he came from and what this book in the future could mean to his sons but that's not necessarily about the actual topic of the book.

I wouldn't necessarily call this book hopeful either but I do think climate change books need to be a bit scary so people will actually start realising the danger we're in and that we need to do something now. Not tomorrow or next week or next year. Now. And it can begin at breakfast or lunch or dinner. This is definitely one of those changes that if everyone made one small change, or sacrifice, when it comes to reducing meat and dairy or cutting out altogether, it can make a HUGE difference to the world. Climate change is tearing people apart when we can easily work together, share wonderful, tasty meat-free meals together in love and make the world a little bit better. And I do think JSF did a good job in getting this across.

The Hungry Road starts off in the 1840s, as the potato blight strikes Ireland and Irish people, particularly poorer tenants living off the land found themselves without any food to eat, and no words or acts of kindness by their English and Anglo-Irish landlords. What came next was mass starvation, resulting in hundreds of thousands of Irish people dying - in their beds, on roadsides, in workhouses, as well as mass emigration to England and America. Ireland's population fell from 8.5 million to 6.6 million.

In The Hungry Road, we follow Mary - a young mother desperate to keep herself and her children alive, as well as her husband. Dr Dan, a young doctor in Skibbereen who despite doing his best to help the starving, can only watch the sick die as little to no help comes from the higher authorities and then Fr John Fitzpatrick who can only pray for the sick as they reach out to God to help them.

This book is definitely a good one to read if you liked Marita Conlon-McKenna's previous book on the famine, Under the Hawthorn Tree. In The Hungry Road, we are following adult characters but the level of horror and destruction was the same in this book as MCM didn't hold back in her children's novels about the terrible state of Ireland at the time.

There's a lot of hopelessness in this book, and the journey of the characters and the plight they had to go through was really what hooked me in this book. The characters themselves were extremely simple, and there wasn't a lot of nuance to them and there were certainly no big plot twists or surprises with the characters either. But it was the Famine coming to life that hooked me, and the years of wasting away, and of struggle and the absolute cruelty and uncaring showed to the people by their landlords. How they still asked for rent when people didn't have food to eat, let alone sell, and then decided to evict everyone near the end and force them on a book to England and America, even if the people didn't necessarily want to go. They didn't really have a choice. It broke my heart.

I think this book would be a good starting point, as well as Under the Hawthorn Tree, for adult readers looking to expand their knowledge on the Famine era (and understand why some Irish people are still bitter about it, and reject to the insults that people throw about Irish people being 'potato eaters'). I think it's so important for people in England to really understand their country's role in Ireland during the time, and the lack of care that was shown to the Irish people and how millions were left to suffer and die. Children became skin and bone while Irish grain and livestock was exported to England. How does that ever make sense? It never will. I'm not saying something wasn't done to try and make things better, but certainly not enough.

I think Mary's story in this book was most interesting, and she certainly was the most to suffer and lost the most. I preferred her struggle and her strength over the story of Dr Dan and Fr John. I think the latter two were good to have for a simple comparison between the classes of people in the town - Mary had to kill a dog that attacked her, and in desperation used its meat to feed her family, while Dr Dan came home to a bowl of beef stew and dumplings, and often had dessert. Fr John always has something nice to eat thanks to his housekeeper while his parish starved outside his door. Fr John's POV didn't really bring much to the story at all, and if it had been removed wouldn't have made a difference.

I really felt Mary's homesickness and grief for Ireland when she is forced to emigrate. Her family's time in New York certainly seemed to be much easier, and possibly slightly unrealistic but also there were people who thrived so maybe not. Again, the description of the coffin ships - similar to Wildflower Girl - really upset me and thinking about the people who died in terrible conditions when they thought they were on the way to a better life is just heartbreaking.

This story is a simple one. It's a novel of hunger, and fight and survival. But it still gripped me and I wanted the Sullivans to survive, to fight their hunger and overcome. For the story itself, I would probably give a 3-stars but because of the extra emotion I felt, I bumped my rating to a 4-star.

2.5 stars.

In the land of Demeine, people have the ability to perform magic - some use their magic to create beautiful illusions, to divine the future and scry on others. Other magic can be used in battle - for strength and for healing. But all magic takes a toll, and eventually a body is worn down. So nobles use hacks - a peasant who can also use magic, and who agrees to work and lend their strength and magic for as long as their body holds out.

Emilie des Marais is on her way to an elite school to learn the art of illusion and divination but she desperately wants to be a physician - even if it means being a hack. When she meets Annette, the two swap places and begin their new lives. But revolution is brewing in Demeine, and war is on the horizon with their neighbours. Will the girls be able to keep their secret, and use their magic to save their country - while also bringing down a corrupt king?

I hoped to love this, and there were some parts I did. I think the magic is really interesting in this book, and how it's used and channeled. I love the girl power going on in this book, and I really appreciate how Linsey Miller always makes sure to have a vast array of diversity in her characters (characters' appearances are explicitly stated so we know if they are POC, one main character appears to be asexual, another describes her relationship with herself and her identity as possibly non-binary, a side character/love interest is a trans man). While I don't believe some of this is from an own voices perspective (though I'm not 100% sure), I think it's still important to appreciate this from any author.

I don't know why all the names and titles in this were French, and when I learned the king was called King Henry XII, I was really confused for a bit wondering if this wasn't fantasy but some kind of historical fantasy and we actually were in France. There's a lot of names and titles thrown around in the book too and sometimes I was confused about who everyone was.

There's a lot of convenience in this book too and everything just happens so easily. It's only in the first chapter that Emilie and Annette meet and swap lives - it's literally like "You wanna be me?", "Okay" and that's that. There was no build up except Emilie talking about how much she hated her mother (who actually wasn't a bad person at all?).

The magic in this while intriguing was messy. I don't think we ever got a good idea of how they actually learned and refined their magic - the only classes we seemed to actually see in the book were mathematics and history? Everyone just seemed to know how to do it and what exactly to do.

The war that ended up happening, I don't know why it happened. All of a sudden everyone was at war? I was confused.

The Laurels thing seemed a bit stupid. I liked the idea of it, and I liked the actual name itself but Emilie and Annette both basically walking up a Laurel and becoming part of the group without any questioning was really sketchy.

I think as well none of these characters actually seemed real to me. And when I read a character, I like them to take shape in front of me. I want it to feel like they are sitting beside me, telling me their story. And I didn't feel this with this book. I found it hard to picture anyone and everyone's relationships didn't seem to really have anything in them. I don't think any characters had real chemistry - even friendships like Annette, Coline, and Isabella. I liked Charles and Emilie but there was no real banter between them and I feel like it was really forced.

The only real relationship I liked and felt something between was Laurence and Esthel and we literally only had about 3 seconds of page time with them. But THAT's the true love story I wanted and one we didn't get.

There was nothing really wrong with this book. Linsey Miller is able to write, and she does create worlds and magic that seem to have thought in them. Maybe it's just refining them that's the problem. I just didn't totally get on with this book, and I'm not 100% sure why. And that makes me sad.

CW: Anxiety, finger picking, postpartum depression

When Dustin met Willow, he knew he had met the one. Which is why three years later when Dustin arrives home to find his infant daughter alone, and Willow no-where to be found, he's heartbroken and confused. Travelling back to his family home, which he had previously escaped due to a toxic environment,Dustin begins thinking about if he ever really knew his girlfriend at all.

This was a sweet book that tried to really deliver a story that was full of first love, mental health struggles and the reality of being a young parent, as well as possibly suffering from postpartum depression to the reader and while I'm sure this story would work really well for others, I just didn't find myself invested in it or the characters.

The story felt both overwritten and underwritten to me in different parts (which I have to say is probably also the fault of the editor who didn't decide to cross some unnecessary parts out). We have passages where Willow and Dustin go to a party and practically list every person there and where they came from, and considering the only proper friend in the book is Willow's cousin Georgia, we don't need to know about everyone else so listing them out was a waste of time. And then there were a lot of parts of the story that were vague such as Dustin's family life - his sister's relationship and his mom's relationship, his mom's previous toxic behavior and how she overcame that and pretty much everything to do with Willow felt skimmed over.

There's a real conversational tone to the narrative that I didn't enjoy which I think is where a lot of the overwritten parts come into it. Because it feels friendly and like Willow and Dustin are chatting to their friend or a diary, they say too much and most of it doesn't matter.

There were characters in the book that probably could have done more such as Georgia and Alicia - though Georgia was probably actually the strongest side character in the novel - as well as Naomi who seemed like she should have been a bigger character in the book but maybe the author just forgot about her? Willow's gran Mary was a lovely character but she was just a gran, and didn't seem to have anything in her personality beyond that. Grans are loving and kind, and a brilliant support system but that doesn't mean that's all they are as humans! Gran deserved more.

I really didn't buy into Dustin and Willow's relationship at all tbh. There was zero chemistry and the both of them just seemed like total drips and I didn't really like either of them. As readers, we just had to accept that they were totally in love because I don't think it was ever really shown on the page and the chemistry was as flat as a pancake. Again, there was a vagueness in the ins and outs of their relationship and how they apparently always pranked each other, but we saw it only once on the page and the rest of the time they didn't really do much together at all. I also don't know why there was so much emphasis on their daughter Zara being a slow developer but it actually not bringing much to the story (besides Willow worrying about it). Willow is also suppose to be obsessed with knitting but it also doesn't bring anything to the story either, and it seems to be forgotten about after she knits the blanket for Dustin/Zara.

I didn't particularly like the end. It was underwhelming and honestly slightly weird with the origin of the packages (I don't know but it made zero sense why you would do that). The very end of it felt a little bit too To All the Boys I Loved Before but Lara Jean's letter writing skills are much, much better - and I actually believe her where I don't believe Willow ever knew what she wanted.

There is mental health representation which I know is something the author had first hand experience of, and she always tries to bring good mental health rep into her books which I appreciate. We see Willow suffer from anxiety and panic attacks and definitely a form of postpartum depression throughout the novel.

I'm still trying to figure out if Locke and Jean have the best luck in the world or the worst luck in the world! At the very least, they are the slipperiest thieves that ever there was. Corner them and they will find a crack in the wall to escape through!

At the very least, I enjoyed this book, probably better than the last one. The sense of direction was easier to follow, most likely because I am used to Lynch's writing style by now. Locke and Jean have become good friends to me, and I find myself muttering prayers to the Crooked Warden to safely see them both through their latest debacle.

The same can't be said for their friends however. After the heartbreak of losing Galdo, Calo and Bug, I had prepared myself to say goodbye to any friendly characters in this book. Even with that preparation, the loss of Ezri still hurt. :(

When Emma Gladstone shows up on the Duke of Ashbury's doorstep in a wedding dress, she doesn't actually expect to leave with a marriage proposal. To improve her own circumstances, Emma accepts Ash's proposal, knowing he is desperate for an heir. But what starts as a marriage of convenience blossoms into love as Emma starts to know who her husband really is behind his gruff manner, and his fear of what others think of the scars he brought home from Waterloo - on the exterior and interior.

What a WONDERFUL read! A book that honestly made me laugh out loud, swoon and tear up in all the right places.

The writing in this book is wonderfully witty, and Tessa Dare really developed the best characters in Emma and Ash and just how they bounce off each other. It was so fun to read all of their interactions, as they were so comedic and sometimes gruff and snappy with one another yet there was a constant underlying of love and respect for one another.

The side characters in this book are also really great from Emma's friends, who I know get their own books in this series and I can't wait to read, from the servants who love to plot about throwing Emma and Ash at each other in different ways to make them truly fall in love as well as the butler Khan who is knowledgable and kind, and not afraid to say what he thinks. Even Breeches the cat is a hit!

I thought how Emma and Ash really began to reveal their flaws and fears to one another, and the slow way Ash finally allowed Emma to really see him, and feel him, his scars fully on show was truly beautiful. This scene, despite being a sex scene, actually made me well up in emotion as I really felt the connection between the characters and I could almost hear all their walls come tumbling down.

Brilliant characters, wonderful plot and witty writing. A must read!

A tale of Ireland's Pirate Queen told partly through letters to her young son, as Granuaile narrates the political upheaval in Ireland during the reign of Elizabeth I and the struggle of the Irish lords to fight for their land and freedom.

I really loved this, and I think this book is really special in that it's the kind of children's book that would grip both younger readers, and older ones. I thought the way Irish history is written in this book was so fun and exciting, and really accessible to anyone who might be on their learning journey with it (this time in history is definitely not my strongest knowledge point so I enjoyed learning everything!). There was some really great comedic moments in this book as well as Granuaile narrated her version of events, and I loved the contrast we were given between Gaelic/Brehon Laws and English Law.

I also loved when Granuaile went over to Queen Elizabeth I's court and the two met each other - what a sight and meeting that would have been to witness. Two powerful women in a world of men trying to silence them!

I would adore a full adult novel of Granuaile's adventures but for now, this is a brilliant starting point.

Nancy Kingston is in for a shock when her beloved father dies, and she travels to his plantation in the West Indies with her brother, leaving her childhood friend and betrothed behind. When arriving at the plantation, Nancy is shocked to discover her father was a keeper of slaves and her brother is attempting to marry her off to a cruel neighbor. Nancy and Minerva, a girl she befriends on the plantation, run away together and end up boarding a pirate ship in disguise, and start their life as high sea adventurers.

This book always gets 5/5 stars for me on the nostalgia level because I frickin loved this book as a young girl, and I still remember the thrills from when I initially read it, and marveled at this amazing, exciting life of female pirates.

Celia Rees expertly combines a story of two women who are struggling to find different kinds of freedom - Minerva freedom to be herself without suffering cruelty and racism, and Nancy a freedom to be herself away from the bindings of society. The friendship and sisterly bond between Nancy and Minerva is everything, and it is the main focal point of the story for me and romantic relationships are completely overshadowed by Nancy's love for Minerva which is fantastic.

While Celia Rees doesn't shy away from the cruelty and injustice of the time period - particularly the treatment of people of colour and the disgusting slave trade, there's definitely a sense of acceptance the older reader needs to have with the adventures Nancy and Minerva have as female pirates and the level of safety they appeared to have on board the ship, and the lack of injuries they obtained while fighting.

The book does slow down a bit near the middle, and the pace meanders for a while before picking back up, and the resolution and the ending of the 'villain' near the end all happens a little bit quickly.

But I absolutely love this book. Some amazing, strong female characters fighting for their right to be exactly who they are and I adore it. 100% recommend to everyone!